


Rebound

by Methoxyethane



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Post-Break Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:53:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25828480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methoxyethane/pseuds/Methoxyethane
Summary: Zuko just broke up with Mai, and may or may not be sulking about it. Sokka tries to cheer him up in his own way.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 207





	Rebound

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Isas_Identitty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isas_Identitty/gifts).



“So… can I ask what happened?” Sokka inquired casually, obviously trying not to make a big deal out of the situation for Zuko’s sake.

Zuko just sighed. “There’s nothing to talk about,” he grumbled, taking a sip of the beer Sokka had acquired for him and trying no to wince visibly at the bitter taste. Whatever, the taste matched how he felt right now anyway. 

“Well there has to be SOMETHING to talk about. Like, was it harsh, did she let you down easy, was there another man…?”

Zuko made a disgruntled noise out of the back of his throat. Another man… Something like that was part of the problem, but it hadn’t been  _ Mai’s  _ problem. “No, she didn’t leave me for another man,” Zuko said in almost a scoff. “People just break up with each other sometimes, it doesn’t always have to be a grand reason like cheating or whatever. She just said that we weren’t working out, and she wasn’t wrong.”

Sokka nodded, taking a sip of his own beer. “That makes sense. But… if you agreed that you guys weren’t working out, then can I ask why you’re so… Bummed out about it?”

“We were together for almost three years, Sokka. She was my first girlfriend, my first everything. We’ve known each other since we were little kids, and now I don’t even know if we’re gonna be friends anymore after this. Aren’t I allowed to be upset?”

“You’re right,” Sokka admitted, “I’m sorry for being rude like that. I’m just trying to scope out the situation, see how badly we need to get you fucked up tonight to forget your troubles.”

“I don’t wanna get fucked up,” Zuko said earnestly. “I just don’t wanna be alone, and half of my friends are actually Mai’s friends and I don’t think I’ll be able to talk to them anymore.” Well, except his sister. He kind of HAD to keep talking to her, as much as he’d love this excuse to cut off ties.

Sokka hung an arm around Zuko’s shoulders, dragging him in close. “Well that’s what you have me for, buddy! And Aang, and my sister, and you can definitely count on Toph.”

That did make Zuko feel better, although he noticed that Sokka didn’t bring Suki’s name up and wondered if that meant ever since she and Sokka had split Suki had gravitated more towards her friends from Kyoshi Tech than Sokka’s rag-tag group of friends. You’d think Zuko would have noticed by now when they broke up so long ago, but he’d seen so much of Suki through Ty Lee it hadn’t occurred to him he hadn’t actually seen her and Sokka together much since the split.

“What about you and Suki? Did you ever go back to being friends after you broke up?” Zuko allowed himself to ask, turning to Sokka.

Sokka took a moment to look thoughtful. “Not as close as I thought we would be. I still see her sometimes, but it’s like… we don’t know how to talk to each other anymore after we spent the majority of our personal relations with each other as a couple? We still hang out when it's a big group of friends, but I haven’t like… been alone with her much.”

That’s rather what Zuko had been afraid of. “I still wanna be friends with Mai, though. She knows way too much personal information about me to let her wander off and never speak to me again.”

That got a laugh out of Sokka, one of those warm honey-sweet laughs that had always gone straight to Zuko’s stomach to send butterflies into a frenzy. 

Which was a problem. Which HAD been a problem for a while, in fact, to the point where Mai had noticed just the effect Sokka had been having on her boyfriend, and made sure to bring it up as a point of contention during the breakup. That had hurt, but what hurt even more was the fact that the only person Zuko had wanted to call after everything was said and done was still Sokka, meaning she was completely right.

Zuko didn’t know how when or how it had happened, but he knew - and he knew Mai knew - that he was probably more in love with Sokka than he’d ever been with her.

God, he was so stupid.

“Where did you get all of this beer anyway? I’m the oldest one out of our friend group and I’m only twenty, so I know you didn’t get it legally.”

“Dude,” Sokka grinned. “We’re in COLLEGE now. It’s harder to find soda pop than it is to find liquor.”

It was Zuko’s turn to laugh, just a little, as he drained his beer. “Then, did you have anything stronger?”

Sokka’s grin was radiant. “Bitch, for a breakup? I made sure to get you the GOOD shit.” And then he pulled out a bottle of Everclear, and Zuko knew the night was officially gone to pot.

“If I die tonight, I want it put in writing that it was your fault.” Zuko said, and then took the tiniest sip of Everclear. Just to start. 

Sokka took the bottle back from him, taking an even bigger swig than Zuko had. “Trust me, Zuko. We’re gonna have us a night to go down in history.”

Go down in history as the dumbest decision Zuko had ever made? Quite possibly. Nevertheless, when Sokka passed the bottle back, Zuko found himself taking another sip. Might as well steer into it, right?

In the end, it was not the stupidest or worst night of Zuko’s life, though the hangover the next day came close. They drank, they got high, they watched movies, they played video games, and Zuko pointedly avoided talking about anything even loosely resembling his feelings, no matter how drunk he got and how much Sokka tried to pry it out of him.

But when Sokka passed out first, falling asleep on the couch of Zuko’s apartment, Zuko would admit he was out of it enough to spend a long while just… looking at Sokka. Staring at his relaxed face, watching him while he slept. Whether it was a good idea or bad, Zuko did it anyway, until he, too, fell asleep on that same couch with him.

\--

After a couple of weeks, mostly consisting of hanging out with Sokka and moping, something had to give. Mostly, the moping. The moping had to give. 

And what did the moping give way to? Abject horror, upon hearing his friend utter the words, “We need to get you a new girlfriend, bro.”

Zuko paused his video game to stare in horror at Sokka. “Why?” was all he managed to garble out, face contorted with confusion. 

“Because it’s obvious how lonely you are, dude!” Sokka declared, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You’re constantly moping around like a three-legged dog, it’s making me sad to watch, man. We gotta… We gotta get you a rebound.”

“I don’t want a rebound, Sokka. Rebounds are for people who don’t take dating seriously. And I don’t know if you noticed, but everything about me is serious.”

“Which is the problem! You wouldn’t be so depressed about Mai if you hadn’t been so serious about her, you know? I think a little fling will be good for you! Teach you how to have fun for once in your life.”

“I have fun,” Zuko argued back, leaving out an addendum of ‘With you,’ because he wasn’t comfortable with how much of himself that would expose. 

“Yeah but you don’t  _ have fun _ ,” Sokka emphasized like saying that meant anything whatsoever. “Come on, just hear me out. We can have fun with this, I swear.”

Zuko sighed, dropping his controller to scratch behind his ear. “What… did you have in mind, exactly?”

Sokka’s grin was so bright it was radioactive. “There’s a party at Kyoshi Tech tonight. Suki and her girls will all be there, it’s a perfect opportunity to go out and flirt with girls who we already know are cool. It’ll be totally chill, I promise.”

With a reluctant sigh, Zuko already knew there was no getting out of this. “Alright, alright. I’ll… make an effort.”

“Allright!” Sokka declared, slapping Zuko on the back. “I’ll take care of the ride, just be ready at eight!”

Zuko nodded, dread welling in his heart. It was just one night, right? He could totally do this. 

\--

Zuko couldn’t do this. 

It’s not that the party was too big, or overwhelming. And there certainly wasn’t a problem where he didn’t know anyone. In fact, the opposite was the problem. He knew TOO many of these girls. Because he knew them through Mai.

Yeah, talk about awkward. There was no way in hell he could hit on these girls, even if he wasn’t halfway in love with someone else. This was just… this was just too weird.

So Zuko did the only reasonable thing he could think of. He hid in the kitchen and avoided the rest of the party for as long as he could.

It didn’t take long for Sokka to find him, a girl on his arm and apparently looking for Zuko. “Hey, man, there you are! This is Jin, I was just telling her about -”

“Oh!” The girl gasped at the same time Zuko winced out an unsteady, “Um.”

Sokka looked between them, and Jin greeted Zuko with a demure, “Hey Zuko, it’s been a while.”

“Oh, you two have already met?” Sokka said, scratching the back of his head. “My bad, I hadn’t considered…” He trailed off, looking only now like this might have been a bad idea after all. “That you might know anyone here.”

“Yeah…” Zuko said carefully. “It turns out I know a lot of people here. Most of the people, in fact.”

Sokka winced. Jin excused herself from the kitchen to leave them alone, which Zuko found really to be for the best anyway.

“Sorry about that. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me this might actually be a terrible place to pick up girls.” Sokka said, moving to the other side of the counter to offer Zuko his beer.

“It’s not your fault. If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have bothered to come. But I’m already here.” In a party surrounded by Mai and Ty Lee’s friends. “So we might as well try and make the best of it.” And with that, he downed the entire plastic cup of beer in a solid chug, handing Sokka the empty cup. 

Sokka just laughed. “Why don’t I get us some more drinks to start.”

“You do that.”

Sokka returned after a moment with drinks from the punchbowl, a screwdriver with so much vodka there was barely any orange juice to speak of. They sipped on their drinks and talked there in the kitchen, avoiding the rest of the party to keep to themselves.

“So, what are you gonna do when we find girls who Mai isn’t already friends with?” Sokka asked, leaning against the counter. “What have you got, what are your lines?”

“Lines?” Zuko’s brows drew together. “I don’t have any lines. I don’t… I don’t have anything.”

“Yeahhhhh, that’s what I was afraid of,” Sokka sighed, patting Zuko’s shoulder. “That’s okay, I’m here to help. Let’s start off - how would you introduce yourself to a girl you liked?”

He wouldn’t and historically hadn’t. “Uh… Hi, I’m Zuko?”

Sokka snorted. “Cute. But I doubt it would work on a stranger. You’ve gotta use more finesse than that, find something on the girl and compliment that.”

Zuko took another drink. “I like your shoes?” He tried next, a little lazily.

“Pfftt,” Sokka scoffed. “I don’t even know what type of girl that would work on. For one thing that one sounded kind of gay.” He glanced Zuko up and down, leaning in to say, “If I were hitting on you, for example, I’d say something like. ‘Your hair is so beautiful, it looks like silk. I bet it would look even prettier against my pillows.”

Zuko snorted out a laugh, which made Sokka grin. “See? I got you to laugh. That means the line worked.”

“Okay, you got me there,” Zuko admitted. “Um. ‘Your skin looks so soft, what....” He winced, fishing for an ending, “What kind of moisturizer do you use?”

Sokka snorted. “You circled back to gay again! How do you do that, Zuko?” He laughed.

Gee, Zuko  _ wondered  _ how. “Must be my own natural talent,” he said instead. 

“Okay, okay. How about… ‘You know your eyes are breathtaking. I’d say they remind me of a sunrise, but that would hardly do them justice; the sun comes up every day, but that gaze is once-in-a-lifetime stunning.’”

Zuko turned red, plastic cup crinkling under his grip. After sputtering a little, he got a grip on himself and spat out, “And what’s with that line, huh? Instead of sleazy you go for cliche?”

Sokka laughed again, this time shrugging. “Aww, I thought you’d like that one! Okay, how about: ‘Your skin is so white, it makes me wanna leave teeth marks all over you.’”

Zuko fought the dual urges to kiss Sokka and slap him. “T-that’s just filthy! I almost slapped you, dude!”

“And I would have deserved it,” Sokka admitted. “Wow, okay I think it’s time to forget everything I said tonight. I’m sure you should just… be yourself.”

“I’ll do that,” Zuko said, hiding his face behind another sip from his now dented cup.

\--

“You have to admit, this was a better plan,” Sokka said as they wandered into the bookstore. “You’re not gonna be into any girl you meet at a party like that anyway. We need to find you a nice, sober girl. One who reads books.”

That did sound like a better idea in theory, except for the part where Zuko still had no interest in picking up girls of any sort. Even if bookish did sound better than… You know. Mai’s friends.

Either way, there were there now. Once again Zuko was determined to make the most of it, and just enjoy his time hanging out with Sokka.

So they hung out at the books store for a few hours. It was fun, actually, even more fun than they’d ended up having in the kitchen of Suki’s party the other night. They’d browsed and read over books for hours, bashing each other’s weird tastes (Sokka in romance novels and Zuko in terrible predictable crime novels), read over the entire comic book section in the store and half the manga, and generally had a good time of it.

He was just browsing the shelves for something funny he could share with Sokka, when his shoulder bumped into someone else’s. 

“Oh!” The girl he bumped into said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t notice you there! I guess I was a little caught up.”

Zuko shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, so was I.” He apologized. “Were you looking at the Christopher Moore, too?”

She nodded, smiling. “I was! I know his humor’s a little… dark at times, but once I read Coyote Blue I was hooked!”

“A Dirty Job is my favorite,” Zuko said back with a hesitant little smile. 

“I’m Song,” She said, holding out her hand for Zuko to shake. “Did you live around here?”

“Zuko.” He nodded. “I do, actually. I go to school nearby. RCU.”

Song looked impressed, “Oh, Republic City Uni is a good school! I wanted to go there, but in the end I decided to stay home and help with my family’s store.”

“Well, that sounds noble to me.” Zuko told her. “As long as you like working there.”

“Oh, I do!” Song said. “It’s mostly cash register work, but since I know everything it’s nice to be able to help the customers when they have a question.”

Zuko nodded, not sure what to say next. He let his eyes wander away from Song or a moment, which is how he saw Sokka out of the corner of his eye, giving him a huge thumbs-up and a grin.

Oh. Oh shit, was he flirting with this girl? He’d just been trying to make polite conversation since she seemed nice, but… Suddenly Zuko was halfway into panic mode. Fuck. Fuck what was he doing, he couldn’t do this! He couldn’t drag some poor sweet girl into his gay crisis over his best friend.

“Oh, there’s the person I came in with,” Zuko said, backing away. “I had better… get going now.”

“Oh,” Song said, a little surprised. “Well, it was nice meeting you, Zuko.”

He gave an awkward little wave and scrambled away to where Sokka was, who led him a few sections away to ask Zuko, “So, did you get her number?”

Zuko shook his head. “No, I uh… didn’t think to.”

“Dude!” Sokka said, louder. “Why not, that’s what we CAME here for! Was there something wrong with her?”

Hesitantly, Zuko shook his head again. “She was nice, I just…”

“Just what?” Sokka encouraged, confused.

“I’m just probably gay!” Zuko admitted quickly, throwing his arms in the air. “I’m gay, and now you and Mai are the only people that know, except probably Topha nd Azula who proabbly just guessed it by now, and my father will literally disown me this time, which is fine because he’s been looking for an excuse to do that anyway but I’m still gonna have to DEAL with it and.” Zuko took a deep sigh. “And now I just outed myself in the middle of a bookstore, and I’m not gonna be able to show my face in here again until I’ve stopped being humiliated.”

Sokka’s jaw dropped. “I uh… Wow. Fuck. I’m so sorry for like… literally everything I’ve said in the past few weeks? Shit, Zuko, I didn’t mean to make you… come out like that, I should have noticed how weird you were being about the rebound thing and totally laid off, like. Fuck.”

“It’s… fine. I needed to tell someone eventually. Can we just… get out of here? I feel like everyone’s staring at me.”

Sokka nodded, taking Zuko by the shoulder and leading him out of the bookstore. 

Sokka brought Zuko back to his place, told him he could talk about it as much or as little as he wanted. Zuko didn’t say much, since part of his sexual awakening you know… revolved around Sokka, but. He talked a little, and in the end, he felt better now that Sokka knew. 

Telling other people on the other hand… Yeah. Zuko could wait on that.

\--

“I have a new idea,” Sokka announced, Sliding into Zuko’s apartment. “You’re just coming out of the closet, right? Well we should go to a gay bar for a night. Not to pick up guys or anything, but just to be around other gay people, get into the scene.”

“And what about you?” Zuko asked. “Will you be comfortable in a place like that?”

Sokka shrugged. “Lately I’ve been wondering if I might be bi? Maybe this will… clear things up.”

Zuko sighed. He didn’t really wanna go, but… maybe for Sokka’s sake, it would be a good idea.

So they arrived at the bar and no one gets carded and they set themselves up in two empty seats at the bar with sodas, because getting drunk in this environment seemed slightly unsafe.

They chatted with each other mostly, watching the rest of the residents of the bar as they flirted and danced and drank.

Eventually, someone slid up into the space between Zuko and Sokka’s seats. He was sort of handsome, in a scruffy kind of way, with wild hair and a wicked grin that he greeted Zuko with.

“Hey there. What’s a gorgeous thing like you doing in a dump like this?”

Before Zuko had time to do anything but sputter awkwardly at the idea of being gorgeous, Sokka was elbowing his way in. 

“Hey, he’s actually here with someone! So… You can like, go sleaze off somewhere else?”

The new guy turned to acknowledge Sokka with a glare. “I don’t know, I bet I’m much better company than you are, buddy. Why don’t you buzz off and leave me and your friend alone.”

Sokka looked like he was about to throw a fit, or maybe a fist, and Zuko couldn’t help his reaction. He ended up laughing, drawing both of the idiots' attention to him, surprise painting their faces.

“Sorry, but me and my friend weren’t looking for company tonight. Thanks for the offer, though,” Zuko dismissed politely, causing the other guy to scoff and wander off.

Which was a funny enough thing to happen. But then maybe an hour later Sokka disappeared to use the bathroom, and while he was gone a young man with long hair and a rather hilarious moustache noticed Zuko while he was ordering a drink, and ended up introducing himself. 

“I’m Haru,” the nice guy said nicely. “I haven’t seen you around here before. Not that I come here that often, I just…”

Zuko gave a polite laugh. “Yeah, this is my first time coming here. It’s, uh. Not bad, so far.”

He was surprised by a sudden arm filing itself around his shoulder, and from just behind his ear Sokka’s voice interrupted them. “Yeah, we’ve been having a good time. What did you say your name was again?”

“H-haru,” The stranger re-introduced, suddenly looking a lot less confident. “Anyway, looks like my drink’s up.” He said, grabbing his glass from the bar and nodding his head to Zuko and Sokka. “Cheers.”

And with that he too wandered, off, and Sokka’s arm fell from his shoulders to sit back down on the bar stool. 

Zuko raised an eyebrow at him. “So… wanna explain what that was about?” Zuko asked, taking a sip of his coke.

“What was what about?” Sokka asked innocently. “We didn’t come here to pick anyone up, we just came here to check out the vibe, right?”

“...Right,” Zuko said, a little confused by Sokka’s sudden change of tune. 

“Besides, that guy had a moustache. Only creeps have moustaches.”

Zuko laughed. “If you say so, man.” 

He didn’t really mind. He still wouldn't want any guy other than Sokka anyway.

\--

A few days later, after not speaking to each other for possibly the longest period since they’d become friends, Sokka showed up at his apartment again. This is not much or a surprise. What WAS a surprise, is what he said when he got there.

“So,” Sokka announced upon Zuko’s opening of the door. “I figured it out.”

“Figured what out?” Zuko humored him, letting the other boy inside. 

“The problem. And the solution. I figured out both the problem and the solution.”

Zuko raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? And what was the problem, then?”

“That you’re not dating me. Which means the solution is for you to start dating me.”

Zuko stared at him. He wanted to be excited, let his heart do that silly little flutter thing it was threatening to do, but… “And this is the solution to what problem again?”

Sokka made a sort of flailing gesture towards Zuko. “The problem where you aren’t dating me yet and it’s driving me crazy and I think about you all the time and we should be together. That problem. And also the problem of your inability to flirt. If you’re already dating me, then you don’t have to pick up weird guys anymore, and everything will be better for everyone.” He said, all in one breath. “So. What do you think?”

Zuko considered this. “I think you’re full of shit,” he concluded, watching Sokka’s face fall. “But… I’m not opposed to the idea of dating you. If you’re sure it wouldn’t mess up our friendship.”

Sokka beamed at him, reaching forward to grab both of Zuko’s hands. “No way, this is the best idea I’ve ever had, I’m sure of it! We’re gonna be great together, Zuko!”

And with that he spun Zuko around the room in a little excited loop by the hands, laughing excitedly. 

And if it was everything Zuko had ever hoped for and more? Well. No one needed to know that.

\--


End file.
